Fitaloon at MicroShaft

Iain Dale has this letter from a former RAF pilot. Iain says:

There has been a lot of hot air this week about helicopters and the armed forces. I have received an email from an authoritative source who outlines the current position. I thought you might be interested in its contents. The author has given me permission to use his name, but I am not going to in case he suffers any consequences. He served in the RAF for ten years and was involved intimately in the Chinook reversion programme.

This is about the first post Iain has done on Afghanistan in ages.

The letter is also here on the Douglas Carswell blog and was posted as a comment yesterday by a Lee Hannaford, who if he is this man should know a bit about helicopters.

It starts as below,  to see more go to the link.

Hi Iain

Having listened over the last couple of days to the arguments that have been taking place in the commons I thought I would bring some things that you may or may not know to your attention in relation to the state of the rotary lift capacity of the MoD.

The eight Chinook Mk3 special forces helicopters purchased in 1996 will potentially cost £363 Million when (if) they become operational. The Prime Minister, Secretary of State for Defence and the PUS for Defence Procurement stated that some of these helicopters will be available at the end of the year. ZH*** has just entered the beginning of flight trials. Aircraft 2-8 are in various states of reversion and aircraft 8 has been cannibalised to such an extent that it is very unlikely that it will ever become operational. The likelihood of any of these aircraft being ready and available for operations this year is very slim. The aircrews have to be trained and flight certified, the ground crews have to be trained and certified. The aircraft has to be released as fit to fly and has to be retrofitted with the required DAS equipment that is still in trial at ******* **** to get it to theatre entry standard.

The UAE offered to buy the aircraft off the MoD.

You can buy a CH-47D which is the US standard Chinook or what we call the Mk2a for £20 Million

Iain Dale’s Diary: Helicopters: The True Story.